A conventional optical hair removing device includes a laser source for emitting a laser beam, an irradiation unit for irradiating the laser beam emitted from the laser source to body hairs on a skin, a moving mechanism for moving the irradiation unit along the contour of the skin in X and Y directions, and a control unit for controlling the moving mechanism.
The body hair is automatically removed by moving the irradiation unit on the skin in X or Y direction within a specific range with the use of the moving mechanism controlled by the control unit (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No. 2002-172179).
Since, however, the moving mechanism moves the irradiation unit within the specific range under the control of the control unit in the optical hair removing device described in the patent application supra, it was difficult to detect the actual moving distance of the light irradiating unit on the skin.
Further, in the above optical hair removing device, a high power laser beam is used and, thus, the hairs can be removed even when the irradiation unit is positioned away from the skin by a certain distance. However, in a hair removing device using a low power flash lamp or the like, the irradiation unit needs to be located close to the skin when the light is irradiated. Moreover, the irradiation unit needs to be firmly contacted with the skin in order to prevent the light from leaking out and reaching user's eyes. In the prior art, however, it was difficult to confirm whether the irradiation unit makes a firm contact with the skin.